Bank Negara developing portal to track scammer bank accounts

 

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is developing a national fraud portal to collate all the bank accounts and other details used by scammers, in a bid to clamp down on financial fraud.

BNM deputy governor Marzunisham Omar said the portal, which will only be accessible to banks, is expected to be up and running by mid-2024.

"What we envisage is all the (bank) accounts and the suspected accounts being used to receive the (defrauded) funds will be put into this portal.

"Essentially, all the banks and other financial players will know what are the accounts that the money goes to," he said at a workshop on combating financial scams at Lanai Kijang, Kuala Lumpur today.Marzunisham said that with this database, the financial industry can use technology to take preemptive steps in detecting patterns and networks between the accounts used by scammers.

This, he added, can also help financial institutions stop fraudulent transactions faster, and even assist enforcement agencies in investigating the cases.

Intercepting scams in progress

According to Marzunisham, the database can also potentially prevent funds from going into suspected mule accounts.

"I am not saying this is something we can achieve in one year but potentially, we can prevent money from going into the mule accounts.

"The potential of this portal is huge, especially for victims to recover the funds and to prosecute scammers," he said.

However, he noted that it is more crucial to prevent scams from taking place, and urges the public to be vigilant against frauds.

This includes refraining from sharing personal details or bank account passwords with unknown individuals.

BNM deputy governor Marzunisham Omar

He added that agencies working against financial scams are also on guard for scammers to use new technology like artificial intelligence (AI) to dupe victims.

Marzunisham also noted that BNM and related agencies are already working to leverage technology to assist the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) in automating its processes to record and report incidents of scams.

The NSRC is a multi-agency one-stop centre where members of the public can call 997 to report a scam.

They will then cooperate with the police, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, financial institutions and other related agencies on the reported scam. - Mkini